Crusty's Curious Conundrum

RAY: One winter, I remember, an anxious customer called near the end of the day and needed help. She had lowered her electric window to pay a bridge toll and now it wouldn't go back up. She was getting nervous because it was one of those lousy days we get here in New England where it's starting to get misty and that stuff was going to freeze overnight with the window open. It was going to be ugly.

Anyway, Crusty told her to come on in, he would do what he could. Either it would be something simple like a fuse, or something more complex and expensive (he hoped!), and she'd have to leave the car overnight.

So at ten minutes to five she arrives and Crusty tells her to pull into one of the service bays. "What do you want me to do?" she asks. "Should I open the hood so you can check the fuses? I think they're under the hood."

"No," Crusty says. "That's all right."

"Should I turn the lights off?"

"No," Crusty says. "That'll be all right."

"Should I turn the engine off?"

"No, that'll be all right," he says. "Just leave everything just the way it is."

Crusty stands ten feet from the car and very calmly he asks her to try the window in question. Of course it doesn't work.

"Ok," Crusty says, "turn the lights off, turn the engine off. You'll have to leave the car overnight. I'll have Mad Dog give you a ride home. He's living in a junkyard near your house. I'm pretty sure that you'll need a new electric motor. Or maybe a window regulator or maybe both. Yippee!"